Publisher DTP Crew

This is one of many short video segments which will be added to the Digital Tipping Point (DTP) archive. In this particular segment, Patrick Harvey continues on with the story that he started on the previous segment, segment 004.mpg, about a youth voting group, called Black Vote, used the Internet to increase voter turnout among Black youth in Europe. Their success, he says, got established political parties to take them seriously. Without the Internet, the group would have been going door to door, which is not a realistic alternative in the modern world, and in a diverse economy like the EU. Open source software, he says, will help make sure that the cost of such organizing will always remain attainable for such groups.

Because the technology is open, political groups can find the technical assistance that they need right in their own communities, their own actual neighborhoods, rather than depend on a foreign vendor who doesn't understand or care about the local needs. Open source software is not just about technology, it's about cultural choice.

Patrick is a member of the Scottish Green Party, and he says that the values of open source software production dovetail well with the social values that the Green Party holds dear: decentralized, participatory decision-making wherever possible.

Patrick then begins to make an analogy of local software production to local food production, which you will have to catch on the next segment, segment 006.mpg.

Keep in mind that Patrick is actually much, much more eloquent and charismatic than my quick summaries here. He makes a much more convincing case than do I in this summary.

tape id = e-dv045_scotland_01_patrick_harvey_005.mpg

The DTP will be many, many films created by the global open source video community about how open source is changing their lives. We, the DTP crew, are submitting this footage for anyone to rip, mix, and burn under the Creative Commons Attribute - ShareAlike license. We welcome edits, transcriptions, graphics, music, and animation contributions to the film. Please send a link for any contributions to Christian Einfeldt at einfeldt at gmail.com.

Or, if you would like to contribute by directly transcribing this particular video segment, you can do so by going here

http://digitaltippingpoint.com/wiki/index.php/Tape_045

and typing the audio as you hear it into the wiki. Please be sure to add the transcription for this segment under segment 005. You can find other ways to contribute by going to our wiki front page here:

http://digitaltippingpoint.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Thanks for viewing our video!

Contact Information Christian Einfeldt, einfeldt at g mail dot com